# Kermit Did 9/11 Kermit Did 9/11 is a running fan theory joke claiming that Kermit the Frog's existence somehow caused the September 11 attacks, based on a 2002 Muppet TV film scene where an angel shows Kermit a world without him and the Twin Towers happen to appear in the background. After the trivia was shared on Tumblr in 2013, the gag broke out in January 2015 when a Twitter user posted a Wikipedia screenshot linking the detail to Muppet canon. By August 2019, Reddit's r/copypasta elevated a long version of the theory to over 6,400 points. ## Origin The Twin Towers appear in a single composite shot during A Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, which aired on NBC in November 2002[11]. On August 24, 2013, Tumblr account Nerdyfacts posted the trivia that the towers stand only in the film's "world without Kermit" sequence[1]. The next day, Funnyjunk user sexualtyranosaurus reposted the Tumblr find under the title "Kermit is a terrorist"[10], giving the gag its first explicit framing as a joke that Kermit caused the attacks. The film's director Kirk Thatcher later addressed the detail directly. On May 21, 2014, Thatcher told a now-deleted @BradFraggle tweet that the towers' presence "implies that the background cycloramas/translights that were available in Canada were more than a year old," meaning the Toronto-area production reused dated backdrops[5]. He repeated the same explanation to another Twitter user on March 10, 2016[9]. - **Platform:** Tumblr (origin) / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Unknown - **Date:** 2013 ## Overview The joke works by inverting It's a Wonderful Life logic. In A Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, an angel shows Kermit an alternate reality in which he was never born, and in that reality the Twin Towers are still standing in a New York cityscape shot, even though the towers do not appear anywhere else in the film[1]. Fans flipped that implication: if Kermit's non-existence saved the towers, then Kermit's existence must have caused their destruction[3]. Typical posts combine the still frame of Kermit smiling in front of the intact Twin Towers with mock-serious conspiracy captions, or restate the theory as a straight-faced explainer in copypasta form[7]. Director Kirk Thatcher has twice confirmed the practical answer, saying the Canadian production reused background cycloramas and translights that were more than a year old at the time of filming[5][9]. The gag is less about the Muppets than about the comic premise of blaming a felt frog for a national tragedy with sincere, documentary-style phrasing. ## How It Spread On December 5, 2014, a now-deleted Reddit account posted the Muppet factoid in an r/movies thread about scenes removed after 9/11, pointing to the Wikipedia article "List of entertainment affected by the September 11 attacks"[4]. The gag broke out properly on January 12, 2015, when Twitter user @jfruh shared a screenshot of that Wikipedia entry with the caption "for those of you who missed it last night: wikipedia heavily implies that it's muppets canon that kermit did 9/11"[2]. The tweet picked up over 7,000 retweets and 11,000 likes and became the catalyst most later posts cite. Mainstream humor sites followed. Cracked published "5 Signs The Muppets Caused 9/11" on October 14, 2015[6], then released a video version of the theory on December 5, 2017. An r/shittymoviedetails thread on October 15, 2018 restated the premise as a bogus film detail[10], and on August 26, 2019, user akaSashk posted a long-form writeup to r/copypasta that reached over 6,400 points[7]. The theory resurfaced in 2021 when Reddit user JesusDiedForBaron answered an r/AskReddit question titled "What fan theory do you 100% accept as true" with the Kermit theory. That comment accumulated over 50,000 points and was widely screenshotted on other platforms[8]. ## How to Use Posts usually combine a screenshot of Kermit in front of the intact Twin Towers with mock-serious conspiracy phrasing, or quote the r/copypasta writeup verbatim[7]. Common conventions include replying "kermit did 9/11" to any Muppet-related post, citing the fake Wikipedia claim as if it were canon[2], or presenting the theory on a list of fan theories someone accepts as 100% true[8]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Kermit Did 9/11? It is an ironic fan theory joke claiming Kermit the Frog's existence caused the September 11 attacks, based on a 2002 Muppet film scene where the Twin Towers appear only in a world without Kermit[3]. ### Where did Kermit Did 9/11 come from? The underlying trivia was first posted by Tumblr account Nerdyfacts on August 24, 2013[1], and the "Kermit did 9/11" phrasing went viral in a January 12, 2015 tweet by @jfruh[2]. ### What does Kermit Did 9/11 mean? It inverts It's a Wonderful Life logic: because the towers stand in the film's alternate reality where Kermit was never born, posters joke that his existence must have caused their fall[3]. Director Kirk Thatcher said the towers appear only because the production reused old backdrops[5]. ### How do you use Kermit Did 9/11? People share the still frame of Kermit standing before the Twin Towers with mock conspiracy captions, or recite the r/copypasta writeup as if it were a serious theory[7]. ### Is Kermit Did 9/11 still popular? The joke has had periodic revivals, including a 2021 r/AskReddit comment with over 50,000 points that reintroduced the theory to a new audience[8]. ## References 1. [https://nerdyfacts.tumblr.com/post/59232929043/source]() 2. [https://twitter.com/jfruh/status/554702599861989376]() 3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/kermit-did-911]() 4. [https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/2of4jc/scenes_removed_after_911/]() 5. [https://twitter.com/KirkThatcher/status/469308990242189314]() 6. [https://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-muppets-caused-911]() 7. [https://www.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/cvn1un/kermit_did_911/]() 8. [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/lhk6dg/what_fan_theory_do_you_100_accept_as_true/]() 9. [https://twitter.com/KirkThatcher/status/707932965200728064]() 10. [https://www.reddit.com/r/shittymoviedetails/comments/9o9dop/in_its_a_very_merry_muppet_christmas_movie_2002/]() 11. [https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/121617/why-exactly-do-the-twin-towers-still-stand-in-the-kermit-less-world]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/kermit-did-911 Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library